Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Temperature Quilt 2018

I have seen my knitting and crochet friends making temperature afghans for yours. I've always wanted to do one but really wanted it to be a quilt. I have looked to see if anyone was doing a temperature quilt along but I couldn't find one. So I played with some ideas and I came up with my own idea for a temperature quilt that will include the high temp and the low temp for each day.

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If you aren't familiar with the temperature afghans the basic idea is for each week you crochet one row to show the average high temp for the week. Temperature ranges have a set color and at the end of the year, you have 52 rows of stitching that commemorates the last year. A row works great for knitting or crochet no one wants to switch yarn colors every stitch. If you do it with a quilt though you end up with a boring version of the jelly roll race quilt. I needed something more exciting. That's when I had the bright idea, half square triangles.

I'm doing one half of the half square triangle with the low temp of the day and one half with the high temp of the day. I am using WeatherUnderground to find my daily highs and lows. I am doing actual temps not windchill or heat index. I try to do this daily and write it on my calendar but the website allows me to go back to any days that I miss.

I am using the Fons & Porter Triangle Trimmer to make my triangles. I know it's not a template but it's a perfect size and I hate having single-use things sitting around so I'm using it as a template. I am sure the quilt police aren't going to show up and take my fabric or my sewing machines. These triangles will have a bias on them but since I don't foresee lots of days with the same temperature ranges I am not doing two or eight at a time. I am using the pink one which is for half square triangles and it is 3 1/2" inches tall.

Temperature Quilt Fabric

I am doing a scrappy quilt. As I finish other projects I'm slicing up the leftovers into triangles so that I can grab and go. This isn't supposed to be stressful, it's supposed to be something fun and colorful. Because of the size of our "template" you will need a piece of fabric at least 3 1/2" square to cut from.

Construction of Temperature Quilt

This will take some organization so that you don't miss place your pieces or rows. Extra large storage bags will be what I will be using. I can put the triangles in one and labeled rows in another until it gets too big for a bag.

Sewing the half square triangles is pretty straightforward. Simply sew along the diagonal of each pair, one you low temp and one your high temp.

Be careful when you press open your half square triangles. That seam is on the bias and you can stretch it out of shape easily. I don't use steam anytime I press something with bias. I find the steam makes it easier to stretch.

I marked the first day with a numbered pin, I use Marilee's Numbered Pins, so I know which side to add the next one, though in my case we've stayed in the same range so it didn't really matter. There will be 16 half square triangles per row and 23 rows in the whole quilt.

The two "leftover" squares will be used as our label. 365 only has two other factors than 1 and 365 and that was 5 and 73. That would have made for one really narrow and really long quilt. To solve this we are going to add two extra squares at the end.

That's it for now. About every three months we'll have a check in so we can all share our progress on our quilts. If you don't want to miss the chance to share your work be sure to sign up for our newsletter using the form below.